The systems and methods described herein relate to installing software applications on computer systems such as video game systems.
Software applications for computer systems may be pre-installed or may be loaded onto the systems after purchase, for example by downloading from a web site or using physical media such as optical disks.
One known system for downloading software applications to a video game system is discussed with reference to the channel menu shown in FIG. 7. The channel menu in FIG. 7 includes a number of menu items (“channels”) 701 which may be selected by a user to invoke software applications such as games, shopping, internet access and the like. Certain of the channels may correspond to software applications which were not pre-installed on the game system. In FIG. 7, applications for the Forecast channel (for weather forecasts) and the News channel (for current news) are not pre-installed. When a user selects one of these channels, the game system is connected to a web site and thereafter initiates a system software/firmware update. This update includes the Forecast and/or News channels and the user can then select these channels to invoke the corresponding Forecast and News applications. The Forecast and News channel applications are system applications which cannot be deleted by the users and which are updated together with system programs such as firmware programs. Thus, in order to install such programs on the video game system, the entire system software/firmware must be updated and all system applications are updated together.
The systems and methods described herein permit software applications to be installed onto a computer system without requiring a system update. The software applications are treated as user applications which can, for example, be installed separately and independently from each other and which can be deleted by users.
One example method of installing an application onto an apparatus involves displaying an application menu screen comprising a fixed number of menu item display locations, at least one of the menu item display locations displaying a first menu item for a non-installed application. An announcement screen is displayed in response to selection of the first menu item for the non-installed application, the announcement screen comprising a selection item configured to initiate a downloading operation for the non-installed application. The downloading operation is initiated in response to selection of the selection item. The application can be installed/non-installed separately from other applications.